Mosley Tells FOTA Teams to Form Their Own Championship

The Formula 1 2010 budget cap row continues to rumble on before this weekend's Turkish Grand Prix.

As reported previously in this blog nine of the ten FOTA member teams submitted conditional applications for the 2010 FIA Formula 1 World Championship by the 29th May deadline.

Williams broke ranks from the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) and submitted a full entry to the Championship in line with their commercial and contractural obligations. They were later suspended from membership of FOTA.

Subsequently, Force India have also submitted a full entry and face suspension, like Williams, from FOTA.

Following the announcement of the proposed budget cap from 2010 onwards, many new entrants have been persuaded to submit entry applications and as the total number of teams that can enter is limited to thirteen (26 cars), places on the grid are not guaranteed for all of the current established F1 participants.

Perhaps emboldened by the level of new applicants to the sport, Mosley has effectively told the eight FOTA teams lead by Ferrari that have submitted only conditional entries for 2010 to put up or shut up.

Mosley has stated that if they are not happy with the rules set by the FIA they should consider running their own Championship and then they are free to do what they like.

This is certainly a high stakes game for all concerned.

Should the likes of Ferrari and McLaren do as is suggested by Mosley and go their own way Ecclestone will find himself in hot water with the television networks and advertisers.

On the other hand, some of the FOTA teams could find themselves in court for breach of contract. It is said that Ferrari could be sued for as much as £ 500 million.

The FOTA teams would also have enormous expenditure to get a breakaway series up and running.

Ecclestone has exclusivity arrangements with all the circuits currently used by F1 and numerous major television deals. The FOTA teams would have to negotiate venues and television coverage from scratch.

Some of the teams (Toyota ? Renault ?) may use these shenanigans as a convenient excuse to bow out completely in view of the losses they are currently incurring in their production car business.

Hopefully everyone will see sense at some point before too much irreversible damage is done.

F1 Budget Cap Latest - FOTA Teams Sign Up For 2010

As reported previously in this blog, Williams F1 have already signed up for the 2010 F1 Championship.

Now the remaing nine FOTA teams have submitted their entries for 2010, despite their previous threats to boycott Formula 1 if the proposed FIA budget cap was pushed through.

FOTA issued a statement on Friday afternoon (29th May) stating that all its members would commit to F1 through to 2012 – provided they receive guarantees about the sport’s future governance, and that the FIA accepts FOTA's modifications to the controversial budget cap proposal.

The announcement could signal a breakthrough in the long-running dispute between FOTA and the FIA.

FOTA have insisted that a new Concorde Agreement be signed by all parties by June 12th. This is the date when the FIA has indicated it will publish the list of confirmed participants in the 2010 season.

FOTA is seeking a formal contract to give greater stability over the rule-making process, having been unhappy with the way recent rule changes were pushed through the FIA World Council, bypassing teams and other stakeholders represented on the F1 Commission.

In return for such guarantees, FOTA members will pledge their allegiance to F1 for the next three years.

FOTA’s other major proviso concerns the technical regulations to be adopted for 2010, which it says must be based on this year's rules subject to the amendments it has proposed in a submission to the FIA.

These amendments are believed to include a phased introduction of the budget cap and measures to ensure prospective new teams can compete in the higher-spending initial year.

The FOTA statement said: “All FOTA teams have today submitted conditional entries for the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship. FOTA confirms all its members’ long-term commitment to be involved in the FIA Formula One World Championship and has unanimously agreed further and significant actions to substantially reduce the costs of competing in the championship in the next three years, creating a mechanism that will preserve the technological competition and the sporting challenge and, at the same time, facilitate the entry in the F1 championship for new teams. These measures are in line with what has been already decided in 2009 within FOTA, achieving important saving on engines and gearboxes".

“All FOTA teams have entered the 2010 championship on the basis that: 1) The Concorde Agreement is signed by all parties before 12th June 2009, after which all FOTA teams will commit to competing in Formula One until 2012. 2) The basis of the 2010 regulations will be the current 2009 regulations, amended in accordance with proposals that FOTA has submitted to the FIA.”

“All FOTA teams’ entries for the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship have been submitted today on the understanding that (a) all FOTA teams will be permitted to compete during the 2010 Formula One season on an identical regulatory basis, and (b) that they may only be accepted as a whole".

All ten of the current teams on the F1 grid have now declared their intention to compete in next year's championship which will be expanded to thirteen teams (26 cars).

We understand that applications have been received from Prodrive (run by former BAR boss, Dave Richards), Campos Racing of Spain, the much vaunted Team US F1, Lola and Litespeed who currently run in F3 but have just teamed up with Mike Gascoigne for their F1 program.

It has been reported in the British press that Ecclestone has initimated that in view of the fact the 2010 grid is now oversubscribed some existing F1 teams may be replaced by new entrants to the sport.

All will be revealed on 12th June.

Williams Suspended from FOTA

It has been announced that Williams have been temporarily suspended from FOTA - the Formula One Teams Association - following their unilateral decision to sign up for the 2010 F1 season as was reported in this blog earlier in the week.

Frank Williams said "FOTA’s decision, although regrettable, is understandable. However, as a racing team and a company whose only business is Formula 1, with obligations to our partners and our employees, submitting our entry to next year’s championship was unquestionable. In addition, we are legally obliged under our contract with FOM and the FIA to participate in the world championship until the end of 2012.”

Williams it would seem is one of the few gentlemen remaining in F1 and not one to go scurrying off to court at the drop of a hat (unlike our Italian friends).

F1 Budget Cap Latest - Williams Confirm 2010 Entry

FOTA, (The Formula 1 Teams Association) has upped the ante in their dispute with the FIA by again calling for the proposed 2010 £40m budget cap to be revoked as a pre-condition of their continuing to participate in the Championship.

Following several meetings at the Monaco Grand Prix last weekend, FIA president Max Mosley indicated that agreement on a budget cap was close, although he did admit that it may not come into effect until 2011.

The view of FOTA is that they are best placed to decide on and implement any necessary cost cutting exercises rather than having them forced upon them by the FIA.

The deadline for entries to the 2010 season is on Friday (29th May). Whilst all the teams are keen to maintain a united front in talks with Mosley, Williams F1 lodged their application for 2010 on Monday (25th May).
Williams stressed that it felt duty-bound to honour undertakings it had given to compete in F1 through to the end of 2010 but had no intention of leaving FOTA.

Mosley has initmated that the FIA may be willing to compromise over the implementation of the budget cap by treating 2010 as a transitional year with changes gradually fased in before coming into full effect in 2011.

It remains to be seen whether an agreement will be reached before the Friday deadline.

Formula 1 Budget Cap Row Rumbles On (and on)

There has still be no resolution to the Formula 1 budget cap row despite further talks in Monaco today (Friday) between the teams, Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley of the FIA.

Earlier in the week an injunction from Ferrari to stop the planned budget cap was kicked out of court.

Ferrari are being even more up the own arse than usual this week making some very scathing comments about the "quality"of the new teams vying to join the F1 Championship next year. (These teams include prestigious and highly experienced companies such as Lola).

According to Ferrari it will be more like GP3 next year than F1.

Perhaps it has escaped their attention that they are being soundly whipped this year by a two bob team by the name of Brawn GP?

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't McLaren, Williams and umpteen other teams start from scratch with limited budgets before growing to where they are now?

In the latest twist Ferrari are threatening legal action as they say they were given a right of veto over technical changes in 2005. Ecclestone is hinting at a possible counter claim against Ferrari for breach of contract should they quit the sport before 2012.

Further talks are planned for Saturday......

Nico Rosberg Fastest in Monaco Practice Session 2

Williams Nico Rosberg has set the fastest time in the second practice session for Sunday's Monaco F1 Grand Prix.

Throughout the season so far Rosberg has been consistantly fast during Friday practice sessions but unfortunately has not been able to carry this speed into qualifying on Saturdays or the race on Sundays.

There are rumours that he is getting frustrated with the Williams Team. Lets hope Patrick and Frank can get the issues with the car resolved soon so that he can show his talents. Maybe a good result is on the cards this weekend.

The two McLarens of Hamilton and Kovalainen are showing improved pace round Monaco with Hamilton second fastest behind Rosberg.

The Brawns are also fast again with Barrichello quicker than his team mate Button in both practice sessions.

Could it be Rubens turn to take the win this time following his disappointment in Spain? All will be revealed as the weekend progresses.

Button wins at Spanish GP - Barrichello Spits the Dummy!

Britain's Jenson Button drove his way to victory number four of the 2009 F1 season at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday beating his Brawn GP team mate Rubens Barrichello into second place.

Barrichello had outpaced and passed Button at the start of the race to take the lead and on his planned three stop strategy should have won the race. During the race Brawn GP decided to switch Button from three stop to a two stop strategy enabling him to take the victory.

On the BBC F1 coverage you could clearly see Barrichello was bemused to find himself in second place when he clearly thought the win had been in his grasp.

Post race Barrichello was quoted as saying he would "hang up his helmet" immediately if he had any suspicion that Ross Brawn was favouring Button. Brawn has denied showing any favour to either of his two drivers.

It must seem like deja vu to Barrichello after playing Patsy to Michael Schumacher for all those years at Ferrari - same team boss - same scenario - just a smaller pay packet!

L2F's view is that Rubens is being paranoid. Ross Brawn has been around too long to put all his eggs in one basket when there are still twelve races left to run.

Button is clearly on a roll at the moment but cast your mind back to earlier in his career when things weren't running so smoothly for him - for example his time at Renault when the perma tanned one had to give him the hurry up or the is he going to Williams or isn't he debacle.

A few DNF's here and there or a slip up or two for Button and Barrichello could still have his day. They should both keep an eye on young Vettel of Red Bull too.

By the way L2F tip - Barrichello for victory at Silverstone.......

Williams Taking an Interest in Adam Carroll

Following his triumph at the A1 GP at Brands Hatch last weekend and excellent performances for Team Ireland throughout the season, we hear rumours that Patrick Head of Williams F1 is taking a keen interest in Adam Carroll's career.

Maybe he will get a chance to test for Williams at some point next year - watch this space!

Chinese Grand Prix Pre Race Update

The main news today is the departure of Ron Dennis from the McLaren F1 team.

It would appear that Dennis may have fallen on his sword following the Lewis Hamilton "cheating" scandal at the season opening Australian GP last month.

Dennis who has been involved with Formula 1 for the last 43 years will now concentrate on McLaren's sports car business.

Diffuser Row - After the FIA ruling earlier this week in favour of Brawn Gp, Toyota and Williams, we understand that McLaren and Renault will be running revised diffusers on their cars in China this weekend. It remains to see how they will fare in qualifying and the race.

KERS - after experiencing unreliability problems in Australia and Malaysia, Ferrari have decided not to run with KERS at the Chinese GP.

FIA Diffuser Row Settled in Favour of Brawn, Toyota & Williams

Following a prolonged hearing yesterday, the FIA International Court of Appeal has ruled that the diffusers used by the cars of the Brawn, Toyota and Williams teams are indeed legal.

A statement from the FIA read: "The FIA International Court of Appeal has decided to deny the appeals submitted against decisions taken by the Panel of the Stewards on March 26 at the Australian Grand Prix and counting towards the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship"

"Based on the arguments heard and evidence before it, the court concluded that the stewards were correct to find that the cars in question comply with the applicable regulations".

The decision leaves Brawn, Toyota and Williams free to race in this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, and Jensen Button leading the championship table after the first two races of the 2009 season.

The remaining teams will now have no option but to rapidly redesign their cars to keep up.